COLUMN: Sequestration drama queens and the 2.2 percent cut

By Ron Hart | The Hart Beat

Published: Thursday, February 28, 2013 at 04:11 PM.

Sequestration happens — and it is the only way Washington can be forced to cut the growth of spending. Remember, the $85 billion politicians are howling about (out of a $3.7 trillion dollar budget) is only a 2.2 percent cut. It is a reduction in the growth of spending, not in spending itself.

Democrats play the spin game by threatening us with all the bad things that will happen to us with this 2.2 percent cut in spending growth. Heads of the 1,200 different government programs, projects and agencies are induced to threaten us and blast the cuts by warning, through their compliant media, of overblown dire consequences. They squeal that “750,000 non-essential" employees will lose their jobs. Has anyone asked why we have 750,000 non-essential federal employees in the first place?

They say things like 2 million kids will be denied medicine, the TSA will get even slower, and FAA workers will be furloughed. Never mind that domestic air travel is down 27 percent from pre-9/11 levels while the FAA’s budget is up 41 percent.

After welfare reform passed in the 1990s, liberals said the poor would be on the streets. Kids, hadn’t you heard about that non-event? Give your racist aunt some wine coolers and ask her.

Reagan fired all air traffic controllers after they struck. Nothing happened. It is only about their budget and jobs, so they threaten to use the government to punish us.

Obama parades out kids, firemen, teachers and the like as props to evoke a maudlin response. In reality, a 2 percent cut means one fewer bureaucrat in the Education Department’s Jungle Gym Safety and Green Sustainability Bureau. They would go from 50 to 49 administrators, which is still probably 40 too many.

Sequestration happens — and it is the only way Washington can be forced to cut the growth of spending. Remember, the $85 billion politicians are howling about (out of a $3.7 trillion dollar budget) is only a 2.2 percent cut. It is a reduction in the growth of spending, not in spending itself.

Democrats play the spin game by threatening us with all the bad things that will happen to us with this 2.2 percent cut in spending growth. Heads of the 1,200 different government programs, projects and agencies are induced to threaten us and blast the cuts by warning, through their compliant media, of overblown dire consequences. They squeal that “750,000 non-essential" employees will lose their jobs. Has anyone asked why we have 750,000 non-essential federal employees in the first place?

They say things like 2 million kids will be denied medicine, the TSA will get even slower, and FAA workers will be furloughed. Never mind that domestic air travel is down 27 percent from pre-9/11 levels while the FAA’s budget is up 41 percent.

After welfare reform passed in the 1990s, liberals said the poor would be on the streets. Kids, hadn’t you heard about that non-event? Give your racist aunt some wine coolers and ask her.

Reagan fired all air traffic controllers after they struck. Nothing happened. It is only about their budget and jobs, so they threaten to use the government to punish us.

Obama parades out kids, firemen, teachers and the like as props to evoke a maudlin response. In reality, a 2 percent cut means one fewer bureaucrat in the Education Department’s Jungle Gym Safety and Green Sustainability Bureau. They would go from 50 to 49 administrators, which is still probably 40 too many.

A recent federal study revealed that billions of taxpayer dollars could be saved in D.C. by eliminating many overlapping and duplicate programs. When he read this report, Obama probably ordered another study to look into it.

Our government loves to leave us at the mercy of one manufactured crisis after another. The lack of transparency makes it almost impossible to follow our money. For example, the administration probably budgeted the pending war with North Korea under "Office Supplies."

The amount of money Washington spends is staggering. In truth, the government could not run a church bake sale. The U.S. Postal Service, which hemorrhages cash, hired Lance Armstrong and paid him millions. Now they want to open a mail-order line of postal clothing outfits. If you want to receive haute couture U.S.Postal-wear on time, I suggest you have your order sent via Fed-Ex.

There is a huge party going on in Washington — financed with our money. The Democrats want to continue to party until the cops bang on the door; then they will all run out the back door while blaming the Republicans.

This "crisis" has been coming for a year, ever since Obama cynically proposed sequestration to push the fiscal cliff beyond his November election. He has barely spoken to House Speaker Boehner in weeks. Republicans are right: Obama is “all talk and no action,” or, as I call it, high school dating.

Democrats politicize everything with cheap threats to the taxpayers if their agencies’ budgets suffer even slight cuts. If Republicans want to get our budget “out of the red and into the black,” Democrats will say this is a veiled racial attack on Native- and African-Americans. They cannot move past the drama to actually govern.

If blame is placed on those Republicans firmly adhering to their principles, so be it. Should Republicans not maintain their insurrection more than four hours, they should consult Dr. Ron Paul.

Republicans, while not as theatrical, lament their half of the cuts to their beloved war machine, the Pentagon (which they prefer to be called the "Octagon"). The Defense Department orders tanks the services do not want for wars we do not need. The Joint Chiefs (a group that is not as fun as the name implies) should be more concerned about military effectiveness than size. Since the only women around commanders like Generals Petraeus and Allen are mistresses, they are led to believe that only size matters.

Lawmakers congratulate themselves when they “save us” from fiscal cliffs of their own creation. Maybe they should authorize the printing of a $1 trillion bill with pictures of Thelma and Louise on it.

NOTE: Clicking on hashtags in this stream may result in seeing adult material, such as photos or foul language, that appear elsewhere on Twitter. We do not endorse such material, but we do not have control over what items can be found in hashtag searches.